one little branch

Q5. (Romans 6:18-22) In Paul's analogy in these verses, is there a place of independent freedom apart from "slavery" to sin or to Christ? Why do we long for this kind of independent freedom? Why do we hesitate to firmly take sides and make our allegiance clear to all? According to v. 22 "But now you have been set from sin and have become slaves to God..." there is no room, no hiatus, no holiday or special permission to be off sinning. It says that we have been set from sin, from its power, control, dominion, slavery and have become slaves to God. A slave is obedient to his master. So then if I am no longer slave to sin but to God my actions should match what God desires and expect from me. Paul says that before we belonged to God we were free in regard to righteousness and went about presenting my members as instruments of unrighteousness BUT now I belong to God and He is my Master and I must present my members as instruments of righteousenss to Him and for His service. I believe that we long for this independent freedom because we, consciously or unconciously, still desire to partake of a sinful lifestyle. I have not realized the total freedom from sin OR still want to dab into in as if I can just spend time in it and not be affected by it. I am either being deceived to believe that is ok or choosing willingly to put myself under its dominion. The heart is deceitful...so by my own desires like James says I am driven away from obedience to my new Master and succumb into obedience to the old one. We hesitate to make our allegiance to God clear because I am perhaps afraid to fail and that others will mock me, or perhaps I am not totally convinced that I am free from sin and fear that I will fall for it again. May God be gracious to all and show us how trully we can walk victoriously in Him and part once and for all from a habitual sinful lifestyle!

Q4. (Romans 6:17b) How does good doctrine affect the way we live? Why should we honor good doctrine? If we shouldn't look down on doctrine itself, what kind of teaching should we be avoiding? Doctrine is defined by a "body of beliefs about God, humankind, Christ, the church and other related concepts considered authoritative and thus worthy of acceptance by all members of the community of faith. Paul says that the Roman believers accepted from the heart that form of doctrine to which they were delivered. The Roman believers accepted the slavation by faith, that Jesus was the MessiaH and that God raised Jesus from the dead. Paul says that having been delivered and been set free then they became slaves of righteousness. We should honor the doctrine to which we were delivered because is how we manifest our love and belief in what God says and wants for us. We should avoind any doctrine that do no cover those three items mentioned above and any false doctrine that emphasizes self in any way. The gospel and what it means for us is the good news and that"form of doctrine to which we were delivere and that is enough!

Q3. (Romans 6:15-18). What does obedience have to do with slavery? In what way does doing acts of righteousness demonstrate your slavery to God? In what ways does doing bad things demonstrate a slavery to sin? How is such a slavery or bondage broken? What part does obedience have in breaking this bondage? In what areas is God speaking to you about a fresh obedience in your life? In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve where totally free to choose right from wrong. Obedience or disobedience. They frelly chose to believe satan rather than God and thus sinned. Ever since then mankind has been ensalved to sin. WHen Christ came to die on our place and cut off the "electrical cord that supplies energy to our sinful nature" and ultimately the penalty of sin, He did so once for all. Now we have been made free to choose again like in the beginning. Although we have now a sinful nature, the world and satan against us we have been circumcised in our hearts and have been given a new disposition to obey and to love God. Parting from the premise that we are free to obey then whomever we choose to obey we submit ourselves to this person. The slave does what is told! We are freedmen and can choose who do we submit ourselves to but to whomever we do we become that person's slave. Christ purchased my freedom and my forgiveness why would I betray Him by running to the arms of His enemy and the enemy of my soul and become his slave again. May it never be! When I choose to do acts of righteousness I am fulfilling God's purposes for my life. I place myself before the Father to obey and do according to what He has for me. It is voluntarily and out of love for Him that I can do this otherwise it will not be accepted by Him. Doing "bad things" is a way of demonstrating how little I love God and who is seated in the throne of my heart! Doing anything to satisy myself, out of guilt, out of obligation or fear will not please God. "Bad things" can be the good things that we do for others or for God but not God's will for my life! Slavery or bondage to sin can be broken by choosing to obey God in every aspect that He calls us to. Even when we not desire to but we do obey He draws us more and more to Himself. There is freedom in obedience. Sin is a like a chain that has been broken. Everytime that I obey God one more part of the chain is broken and I can learn from that and get closer to God. I have been learning so much about the subject of obedience to God and sometimes I feel like Paul wishing to be with the Lord more so that being here on this earth. I sttrugle to understand these concepts and yet I know that many of them I have to believe by faith!

Q2. (Romans 6:13) In what ways do you "offer the members of your body" to either sin or God multiple times in a day? Why is it that we can sin unconsciously? How can we begin to offer our members deliberately to God? What changes will it take in our daily life to do this? To offer the members of my body to sin or God is to choose who I am a slave of. To choose to serve satan is to yiled to temptation, to go against God's design and desire for me, to grieve the Holy Spirit and to let satan have a victory for His kingdom. When I as a redeemed vessel for the Lord choose to serve the wrong master I am applauding satan's way and allowing him to accomplish his wicked ways in me. WHenever I choose to resit the devil, to turn and go in the opposite direction and to present myself to God then I am allowing Christ to live His life thru me and giving Him the place of honor in my life. When I put myself on the altar before God I believe that I am accomplishing one of His purposes for my life: a life yielded to Him: to listen, to love and to live for Him. The changes that will have to take place in my life is to willingly lay down my "weapons" of war, stop resisting God's will and believe that He loves me when I was still a sinner and He loves me now. When I can totally accept this truth I believe that I will more willingly and joyfully obey Him. Dear Lord, help me to understand these concepts so that they become part of me and increase my passion and love for you! In Jesus name Amen!

Q1. (Romans 6:12) What does obedience have to do with the "reign" of sin? Before we were saved from the penalty and power of sin we could not help but to obey it's commands. Paul personifies sin when he commands us not to let sin "reign" in our mortal bodies. Jesus rescued us from the penalty of sin which is dead but also from its grip and power. We no longer are enslaved, tied down by, or submitted to sin UNLESS we willfully gives ourselves to it and to serve it. Colossians 2:15 says that Jesus "disarmed the powers and authorities"...in other words sins reign and kingdom has been stripped of every power that they used to have over me and if I do obey it now and follow my sinful nature is by voilition and not because I cannot help it! Slaves have no choice but to obey and when I belonged to satan and its kingdom I obeyed him and hi spurposesm for me BUT now I have been transferred to the kingdom of His beloved and I choose to obey Him.

Q5. (Romans 6:11) What does it mean to "reckon, consider, count" in verse 11? Does this actually mean that we are convincing ourselves of something that isn't really true? What will be the effect in our lives if we actually do consider it to be true that we died with Christ's death with regard to sin? Reckon- to count, figure, or compute; to think of as being; consider or judge. Paul does an excellent job at explaining our spiritual yet very real union with Christ. He unravels the complexity of the concept of us being grafted into Christ. Because God put us into Christ when we believed when Christ died so did I, when He was buried, so did I and when the Father, by his glory, raised Him up from the dead to live a new life so was I as well! Satan and sin's control over my life were terminated on Calvary and now what remains are still calling me to sin and join its deceitful ways BUT I no longer have to obey the old master and listen to it at all. The Redeemer came to set me free from the market of slaves so that I no longer have to live as slave to sin, Because all of this took place, Paul goes on to say that as I realize all of this to "analize it", "to consider" and to "count" myself as being dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus my Lord. Praise be to the One who overflows with compassion, kindness, patience to this human being underserving of all.

Q4. (Romans 6:6-7) In what way has our "body of sin," our "flesh," our old nature been made powerless because of our crucifixion with Christ? In what way have we been freed from slavery? What difference does this understanding make in our struggles against temptation? "That the body of sin might be done away with..." I was "baptized" into Christ's death and burial. His own death and His own burial and I believe that this took place at the moment that I first believed when there was no water for me to be inmersed in. This union with Christ happened to me by God's doing and it took place in order for me to have my old self being crucified/mortified/or given a mortal blow by the death of my Savior. God put me there with His own Son and while He received the actual physical penalty I received the spiritual gain of my "flesh" being "freed from the dominion of sin" . Before God put me into Christ, in other words, grafted me, fused me in with Him and made us one, I was a slave to sin. I could not say no. And for many years before I understood these truths satan was still having victory in my life! I realize now that when Christ redeemed me and set me free this is what took place and the umbilical cord to sin has been cut off that I no longer has to respond to its calling and wanting to feed me with its putrid lies. Temptation nnow has taken a different place inmy life. Now thru Christ in me I can walk away without sinning and I can be without sinning for wuite a few days. Not because I am all that but because Christ in me and I in Christ can be victorious over sin. As a matter of fact now I understand that everytime I do sin I am grieving the Holy Spirit. The wages of sin is death BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ jesus our Lord!

Q3. (Romans 6:1-7) Is Paul referring to a figurative "death" to sin, or to a kind of historical, actual death? Whose death is he talking about? How does this death become our own? To what degree is this just theological mumbo-jumbo or does it have some basis in reality? I had to think twice on this one. The answer to this can be life-changing. Paul is referring to the historical physical death of Christ and to our being "baptixed" or united, grafted in, incorporated into Christ so that what happened to Him it happened to me. When Paul says "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longe live but Christ lives in me..." he was referring to this fact. We died to our old ways and old man behavior and we are a totally a new creation..."behold the old has gone and the new has come". Paul is referring to Christ death and us being buried with Him. The fact that this took place in the spiritual realm does not make it less real. We are to live the Christ life simply because by faith all of this too\k place when we believe and is taking place even now as the power of the Holy Spirit continues His sanctifying work in us. To walk daily in this reality is to grasp the notion that we are indeed inhabited by the Holy Spirit!

I believe that "buried" corresponds to being physically inmersed in the water where as "Christ was raised from the dead corresponds to the resurrected life, the newness of life having been grafted, inmerse, become under the influence of my great God and Savior.

Q1. (Romans 6:3-5) In what sense does baptism bring about our union with Christ? In what sense does baptism symbolize our union with Christ? The way that I have understood this concept is that thru baptism we are outwardly identifying ourselves with Christ in a public setting and demontrating the spiritual union that has taken place in us the moment we believed. According to the definition of baptism it means to be grafted, to be so united that two become one. The death that Christ died became my death at the moment of salvation and what happened to Him happened to me. Amazing! The Greek word "baptizo" means " to envelop" "to inmerse". In the noun form means "an element which has the power to influence or change that which it envelops". Or it refers to one thing being brought under the transforming power or influence of another. According to the deepest meaning of the word "baptizo", you aren't momentarily dipped into Christ to go in and out of Him. You are truly inmersed, submerged in Him never to be taken out again. We are "incorporated" into Christ: the picture that this brings to mind is when I am cooking and I am asked to incorporate an ingredient into the mixture. The ingredient never again can separate itself from the recipe, nor can it ever be the same again. It is forever changed. Thru the spititual babtism that took place I have become one with Christ and now He is in me and I am in Him. Never again do I walk alone, never again do I find myself without Counselor or at a loss. He is real and He lives in me and I in Him. Glory and power to Him. What an awesome thing our God has done for those who trust in Him.

Q4. (Romans 6:2-5) According to this passage, at what point do we move from being under the headship of Adam to the headship of Christ? Is there anything we must do to bring about this change in headship? What are the implications of us having died with Christ? I am not sure that I know where to find it in this reference but I do believe that at the moment of faith and being justified by it all this transfer took place. Before I believed in Jesus as my personal Savior I was under the federal headship of Adam but once Jesus saved me then I was crucified, died, buried and raised in Him. The moment that I was justified I was dead to my old life, to my old subjection under the first Adam, the power of sin that had reigned in my flesh since my mother conceived me was broken and a new me emerged to newness of life!!! Halleluiah. Because of His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."1 Peter1:3 Our part in all of this is to believe using the faith that He Himself has given us. The implications of having died with Christ are enormous and priceless! For example, if I died judicially with Christ then I am dead to sin and if I rose with Christ then I have His resurrected life in me and can live the way He would want me to.

Q3. (Romans 5:15-19) By what right does Adam represent all humankind? By what right does Christ become head of all who become his disciples? If Christ is not our "representative" or "head," how can his death for sins be effective for us? God appointed Adam, noting especially that the meaning of Adam in the original Hebrew language is the generic term for human, humankind;, Adam being "humankind" had become the federal representative or proxy of all that will come from him. I have heard this explained that all of us were in Adam's loins since the foundation of the world, hence we are in Adam and his sin contaminated us and became our sin. It is the same case with Christ with the exception that Christ volunteered to be our representative, knowing full well what the consequence of his decision will cost Him. If Christ is not my representative at the cross then I am doomed and destined to eternally be separated from my Creator and Father. His death would be of no value for humanity and would serve no purpose.

Q2. (Romans 5:13, 20) What is Paul saying in these verses? Can there be sin without law? In what sense does the "trespass increase" (5:20) when the law is present? Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. This was about 2,500 years before the Law was given to Moses. There was plenty of sin before the event in Mt. Sinai took place.Cain killed Abel out of jealusy. The deluge took place because of sin, the dispersion of people throughout the world after the Tower of Babel was because of rebellion, and several countries had chosen to worship false gods which is idolatry. So YES there can be sin without the law. Rebellion and pride took over in Adam's heart when he made the choice to believe satan over God. Sin entered the human race because we were in Adam. WHen the Law was introduced it served to highlight our already devious and depraved heart. The Law gave us a standard to which we should live BUT because sin was already in our heart we resist it even more. Before I knew that stealing was wrong, I may have been stealing( being wrong but me being ignorant about it, in other words " Breaking the law is not justifiable because of my ignorance about it) but knew nothing about it. When the Law came and pointed out to me that stealing was wrong this stirred up within me my already existing rebellion and I wanted to steal even more! (THIS, BY THE WAY, IT IS AN EXAMPLE IN ORDER TO EXPLAIN THIS CONCEPT) I believe that this is what explains the concept of "trespass increase when the law is present"

Q1. What kinds of circumstances in modern life can you think of where a single person acts for an entire group? In what ways are members of the group tied to this person? The most common one will be the President or National leader. They make decisions that can and does affect millions of people. Whether they accept it or not a nation can be involved in a conflict or a resolution based on one person's choice. In a household, the father or mother does make choices that affect the entire family. In the case of the military community in which I live, sometimes delinquent children make bad decisions that affect the entire family and thus in many cases they are sent back to USA and that brings another set of problems.

Q4. (Romans 5:9-11) What does "reconciliation" mean? Why is reconciliation with God necessary? We understand our having been saved by Jesus' death (5:10a, past tense). In what sense are we being saved (5:10b, present tense) by his life? What is Jesus doing for us in the present? Reconciliation according to Spiros Zodhiates dictionary, is used of the divine work of redemption, denoting that act of redemption insofar as God Himself, by taking upon Himself our sin and becoming an atonement, establishes that relationship of peace with mankind which the demands of His justice have hitherto prevented. "Katallasso, which is the Greek word, implies that God has laid aside or withdrawn his wrath. I also like the definition of Thomas Nelson's biblical dictionary: the process by which God and people are brought together again. The Bible teaches that they are alienated from one another because of God's holiness and man's sinfulness. Although God loves the sinner it is impossible for Him not to judge sin(Heb.10:27). Therefore, in biblical reconciliation, both parties are affected. Through the sacrifice of Christ, people's sins are atoned for and God's wrath is satisfied or appeased. After this long definition all I can say that reconciliation is: God initiated, mind blowing demonstration of love for mankind, in which He volunteered Himself to take the death penalty of the worse kind upon Himself and in this way making peace between man and God. This was accomplished by the awesome work of Christ on the cross in which He died,took my sentence of death upon Himself and in this way also accomplishing God's appeasement. God did not overlooked our sin, patched it up and declared everything is ok BUT His justice demanded a payment and Christ offered Himself as that payment only then reconciliation was made possible. Reconciliation is neccesary in order to have peace with God, a relationship with Him and access to His throne. God's perfec standard do not allow Him to mingle with a sinner just because But thru the blood of Christ this was made possible for us to relate to Him as our Father and for Him to have made us His children. "In what sense are we being saved by His life?" Heb.7:25 says that He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them. Many angles to this question: because the beginning of our salvation is justification and that took place the moment that we believed it does not mean that we no longer need Him but we are being saved by His life because He continually works in us the process of santcification. Day after day He is at work in us to make us more into His own image. His work of intersession as a High Priest like it describes Him I have to understand better! Presently He is working in us conforming us more to be like Him! Halleluiah! What an awesoem Savior we have.